Murdoch: We're Going To Charge You To Read The WSJ On The Blackberry

Jay Yarow

Sep. 15, 2009, 12:02 PM

Bad news for people reading the Journal for free on their BlackBerries: Rupert says he's going to start charging you.

If you have a subscription to the paper then it's only going to be a dollar a week. If you have no sub, then it will be two bucks. Murdoch delivered the news while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in Manhattan this morning.

(A dollar for those of us who already subscribe? What's he thinking?!)

That isn't the only bad news Rupe delivered. He says, get ready for higher taxes across the board, throughout America, which "will be a drag." We can't just crank our spending and expect zero reprecussions.

The good news from Rupe? He's seeing plenty of advertising activity, which echos what Jeff Zucker said before Rupe took the stage. While we're still in uncertain times, they are "less uncertain."

Murdoch took a jab at the Kindle, saying it's good for books and not much else. Though, he said the Journal has 25,000 subscribers on the Kindle, so maybe it's good for something else. Regardless, he's not happy with Amazon's terms and says Sony is better.

He was asked if News Corp. (NWS) plans on any share buybacks. "We prefer cash," he replied. You hear "buy, buy, buy" all the time from the hedge funds. "If we listened to them, we'd be in debt," and "they would get a nice fat profit."